Bus strike settlement reached

Tuesday, May 28, 2002 | 10:51 a.m.

A tentative agreement to settle an eight-day strike that stranded thousands of bus riders was reached this morning by negotiators for the drivers' union and the company running the local bus system.

Representatives from the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing about 700 bus drivers and mechanics, and ATC, the company running the bus system, hammered out the agreement in a 12-hour negotiating session that ended about 6:30 a.m.

Union members will vote on the proposed contract Wednesday morning. If they approve the contract, drivers could be back to work by 2 p.m. Wednesday, officials said.

Federal mediator David Martinez and union officials credited Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman with bringing the two sides together for the marathon negotiations. ATC spokeswoman Val Michael, however, said the mayor was not involved in the talks.

Goodman was in Salt Lake City this morning and unavailable for comment.

Both sides declined to discuss details of the tentative agreement.

"I obviously will have no comments to the press until the members see it," said ATU international representative Gary Rauen, a negotiator throughout the 12-hour session.

"It means more to the drivers," Rauen said. "They finally have an offer they can look at and review."

Before the union went on strike, the sides were far apart. The company had offered a 3 percent to 10 percent annual pay raise over five years. The union's final counteroffer asked for 7 percent annual raises over two years. The sides were also split on issues such as health insurance and holiday time.

Martinez of the federal mediators service said both sides "were ready and willing" to come back to the table after eight days of pickets and acrimony.

"It wasn't hard to bring them back," he said.

Financial incentives exist to bring both sides back. Drivers have lost wages, and officials with the Regional Transportation Commission, which oversees the bus system and hired ATC to run the system, promised to enforce contract provisions that will fine the company for each late or absent bus.

Rauen agreed that Goodman's request brought them back.

"We had reports that the mayor requested both parties come back to the table," Rauen said. "We reached out to the company."

Striking a familiar chord in the contentious face-off, the company disagreed.

"The mayor wasn't involved at all," Michael said.

Michael said the biggest winners may be the 150,000 people who, before the strike, rode the Citizens Area Transit buses daily.

"The best news that we can give them is the possibility of an end to this by tomorrow," she said.

The strike began May 20 after eight months of talks. Drivers have not had a contract in place since the end of last year.

The strike eliminated CAT service on about a dozen routes last week; 10 routes were still not running this morning. Service on the other lines in the 51-route system have been delayed, sometimes for hours.

The Regional Transportation Commission, the government agency with overall responsibility for the system, has left the negotiating process to the union and the company. But agency officials have been concerned about both the long- and short-term effects the strike would have on the transit system.

Although only 4.4 percent of Clark County's population uses the bus system, the percentage has been growing and is considered an important mitigator to air pollution and traffic congestion.

"We're very pleased to see that they've come to an agreement," RTC spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said today. "We hope to get CAT service back to normal just as soon as possible."

The contract proposal comes three days after the union and company agreed to a temporary restraining order governing pickets at a handful of sites in the Las Vegas Valley. Company officials had complained of pickets delaying buses and other vehicles, rock and bottle throwing and abusive language directed at replacement workers.

District Judge Jennifer Togliatti denied a temporary restraining order early last week, but both sides had expressed safety concerns after about a half-dozen striking drivers reported being bumped by buses operating by replacement workers.

The restraining order that the sides agreed to Friday allows pickets for two minutes in front of buses.

But "emotions were still running high" despite the order, Michael said.

ATU Local President Frank Opdyke was cited by Metro Police after getting in a shoving match with a company supervisor at a bus turnaround near the Strip.

Still undetermined is the fate of drivers who have broken either state strike laws or the terms of the temporary restraining order. The company has vowed not to hire back pickets who violated either the laws or the order.

Michael said the company would review evidence -- which would include photographs taken by replacement workers and company supervisors -- and decide whom to hire back on a case-by-case basis. She said the company was most concerned about incidents such as rock and bottle-throwing.

"As long as they participated in lawful picketing, they are welcome back to work," she said.

While a broad interpretation of Nevada statutes would imply that any picket who delayed a bus at all would technically be in violation of the law, Opdyke said the company has told him that most employees will get a general amnesty.

The company's response is dictated by the need to get most drivers back behind the wheels as soon as possible, Opdyke said.

"There may be a case or two on the fringe," he said. "But they want us back to work. That is all there is to it. "